Many different chemical, biochemical, and other reactions are sensitive to temperature variations. Examples of thermal processes in the area of genetic amplification include, but are not limited to, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Sanger sequencing, etc. One approach to reducing the time and cost of thermally processing multiple samples is to use a device including multiple chambers in which different portions of one sample or different samples can be processed simultaneously. Examples of some reactions that may require accurate chamber-to-chamber temperature control, comparable temperature transition rates, and/or rapid transitions between temperatures include, e.g., the manipulation of nucleic acid samples to assist in the deciphering of the genetic code. Nucleic acid manipulation techniques include amplification methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR); target polynucleotide amplification methods such as self-sustained sequence replication (3SR) and strand-displacement amplification (SDA); methods based on amplification of a signal attached to the target polynucleotide, such as “branched chain” DNA amplification; methods based on amplification of probe DNA, such as ligase chain reaction (LCR) and QB replicase amplification (QBR); transcription-based methods, such as ligation activated transcription (LAT) and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA); and various other amplification methods, such as repair chain reaction (RCR) and cycling probe reaction (CPR). Other examples of nucleic acid manipulation techniques include, e.g., Sanger sequencing, ligand-binding assays, etc.
Systems designed to process sample materials using these techniques are typically complex and expensive. Furthermore, many of the sample processing systems are not particularly flexible in adapting to different sample processing devices. The use of different sample processing devices may, however, be required when different types of sample or different protocols are to be used.
For example, a typical sample processing device (e.g., thermal cycler, sequencing machine, etc.) can perform only one function on sample materials that have certain properties or characteristics. Furthermore, the output of such devices must be transferred to another device if additional processing is desired. Such transfers may be robotically or manually, and both may allow for the introduction of errors such as mislabeling, cross-contamination, etc.